John Drinnan: New show to target Campbell

The last bite of TVNZ's light and tasty magazine show Seven Sharp marks a big crunch point for senior management at TVNZ.

The 7pm show will be back with the same name next year. But with Mike Hosking and Toni Street joining Jesse Mulligan it should end a long malaise and compete with TV3's Campbell Live in daily current affairs.

Sources say TVNZ marketers wanted a light and bright advertiser-friendly show like those that have replaced serious current affairs formats overseas. Instead, Seven Sharp has never met optimistic profit and audience targets and only illustrated the demise of TVNZ current affairs.

Its producers and senior journalists were seldom required to provide serious current affairs.

Affable comedian Mulligan will remain as one reminder of the old show and Street is popular with more conservative viewers, ending a period when Seven Sharp was determinedly hip.

With Hosking fronting the show, it will be aiming at traditional current affairs stories so that it can compete with John Campbell.

It is understood the Government-appointed board of directors led by Wayne Walden started asking questions about the poor ratings for Seven Sharp mid-year. Board member Richard Long took a special interest in its poor performance.